Lowell police investigate third shooting in less than a week

LOWELL - The city's third shooting in less than a week took escalating violence to new heights Thursday when three men were shot at a Chelmsford Street gas station only moments after students were dismissed from Lincoln Elementary School across the street.

The victims, who were in a silver Mitsubishi at the BP gas station at the intersection with Hutchinson Street, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said. Police were investigating, with no suspect found as of late Thursday night.

The shooting, which took place just after 3 p.m., was the third in less than a week in the city and came less than 24 hours after a man was shot dead in the city's Centralville section.

It was also the third shooting in less than two months in the Highlands neighborhood.

The rear window of this car was shot out during a shooting that wounded three men, according to Lowell police. SUN photos/KATIE LANNAN

Two shootings took place in one night in early November, one, a few buildings away on Shaw Street and another in the area of Barclay Street a few blocks away.

"When it happens in the middle of the day, it's even more brazen," said Lower Highlands Neighborhood Group President Taya Dixon Mullane, who had written to City Council candidates in early November asking them to take a stand against violence in the neighborhood.

"It's a grave concern," she said.

No one at the Lincoln Elementary School was injured, but the school was put into a hard lockdown, with no one able to enter or exit the building.

"It's obviously a very disturbing incident here in the middle of the afternoon, and we're very concerned and very angry about it," Police Superintendent William Taylor said.

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At least one suspect shot several rounds at the vehicle, Taylor said. The car was driving away from the station as the shots were fired, and the vehicle stopped a few hundred feet away at the intersection of Chelmsford and Liberty streets. It wasn't clear why the car stopped abruptly at an angle blocking the travel lane.

One witness, an employee at the BP gas station, said he saw one person shot in the shoulder and another who was grazed in the head with a bullet.

Police examine a car involved in the shooting of three men in Lowell. Watch video at lowellsun.com.

Police said a witness reported seeing a male wearing a black coat and carrying a firearm running up Lincoln Street.

An investigation into Wednesday night's fatal shooting of a 44-year-old man on Second Street was continuing on Thursday. The man, who was found in an apartment building hallway with multiple gunshot wounds, was identified as Jose Torrado of 49 Second St., where the shooting took place.

The shooting, which happened place just after 8 p.m., did not appear to be random, according to a press release from Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan's office.

A shooting also took place on Corbett Street late last Friday night.

A 20-year-old man, Siem Thach, was arrested last weekend as the suspect.

Police Superintendent William Taylor: "It's obviously a very disturbing incident here in the middle of the afternoon, and we're very concerned and very angry about it."

He was charged with armed assault with intent to murder, armed home invasion, unlawfully discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, unlawful possession of ammunition and unlawfully carrying a firearm.

Police have said the victim is expected to recover.

The Chelmsford Street shooting Thursday took place only a few blocks from where police found 23 shell casings after a late-night shooting last month on Shaw Street. Afirst-floor window was pierced by a bullet, and at least two cars were damaged.

A series of gunshots was also reported that night in the area of Barclay Street, a few blocks to the north. No one was hurt in either incident.

Police stepped up patrols in the Highlands after those incidents. Officers from the Middlesex Sheriff's Office and state police doubled the number of officers in the Lower Highlands in the following weekend.

Police will be made available at the Lincoln School on Friday if needed for reassurance, Taylor said.

"Any support they need from us they will get," he said.

Workers at the BP gas station where Thursday's shooting took place were taking the incident in stride. There was no trace of the incident a few hours later.

"It happens," said Sean Bomil, who was working behind the counter and heard the gunshots. He said he feels safe despite the incident.
"Of course. I've lived here my whole life," Bomil said.

The station's owner, Jack Abboud, also said he felt safe there. He was reviewing surveillance video to find the time and correct camera to catch the incident, and planned to make a copy to give to police. "I think they're going to catch him," Abboud said of the suspect. Afew buildings down Chelmsford Street, Aamer Nizami heard of the incident before going in for his first day of work at the new ISAMini Mart. The convenience store just got a new owner, Armaan Hussain, and a new name last week.

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